


Hold. Still.

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: A little Mack, Angst, Conflict, Eye Sex, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Male-Female Friendship, Touching, Unresolved, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, mentions of Mackelena, this got jossed so it's an AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-20
Updated: 2016-09-20
Packaged: 2018-08-16 03:58:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8086195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: written for #byebyehiatus for the UST/angst prompt.  Daisy patches up Coulson in her motel room after they escape from Ghost Rider with Mack. AU.





	

It's the second time she's had to ask.

"Hold still."

Mack is nervously pacing inside the motel room, letting her look Coulson over at the foot of the bed, as she puts the butterfly stiches against the gash.

"We can all get back to the plane," Mack tells her.

She can feel Coulson try to look up at her, but she concentrates, pressing them in place.

"Hold. Still. He won't find us here. We're safe."

"Are you kidding?" Mack asks, pointing his finger towards the door. "He was finding us all night long. Everywhere."

"He's after someone else, now," she starts, pressing the damp washcloth to the spot above his eyebrow. "Someone-"

She pauses, unable to avoid it any longer as her eyes meet his.

"Worse," Coulson finishes, frowning.

Her hand drops to her lap, and then she looks at the cut on his lip, and reaches for it, as he jerks his head away.

"Hold-"

He takes her wrist in his fingers, and lowers it, letting her know he needs her to stop.

"I can't get a signal in here," Mack says, staring down at his satphone.

"There's a reason for that," Daisy says over her shoulder, notices that Coulson is still holding onto her.

"Thanks," Mack huffs, and then looks back at them sitting together on the edge of the bed. "I'm going to take a walk, see if I can call into HQ."

"Just make sure-" Coulson starts, as Mack heads for the door.

"Yeah, no mention of your fugitive savior here. Okay."

Daisy's about to say something to him, before he goes, like "Don't go."

But it's too late, and the door shuts, and then she's alone.

With him.

Her eyes slowly lift to his, and see something soft there, but then they turn as his expression changes.

"What were you thinking? Going after someone like that? On your own?!"

"I was thinking that this wouldn't happen," she says through her teeth. "That you wouldn't-"

His eyes get wide, and she stops, as some of the anger dissipates, he extends an arm to brace himself on the bed.

Then he looks down at the floor, a far off gaze, and nods.

"This is my fault. If I hadn't killed Ward-"

"No," she sighs, running a hand through her hair, the exhaustion setting in as the adrenaline comes down. "I mean, yes."

He reaction is fixed between sad and confused, and she reads it as rejection, guilt.

"He is after you because of what happened with Ward," she continues. "But that's not what I meant, when I said 'no'."

The way he's studying her, like he's attempting to see something beyond the conversation they're having, worries her.

"I don't know how it's even possible," she shrugs. "Somehow, even after I ran, you're here. I've pulled you into it, again, and I barely-"

"Stop!" he tells her, lifting his bandaged arm and putting his hand on her shoulder. "We were after him before I even knew you were here."

"Well," she tells him, standing. "You need to go back to SHIELD, and let me handle him."

It came out exactly the way she hoped it would sound, but then he reaches for her arm, defiant, and holds it in place when she tries to move out of his grip.

"Like you're handling this?" he asks, pushing back one of her sleeves slowly, and staring at the bruises dotting her arm. "You think I wouldn't notice? That I didn't see every single thing about you that looked different from the day you left?"

Why? Why is he the one person that she can't escape? He has no idea just how hard it was for her to walk away. He would never understand.

"You can't stay here," she snaps, jerking her arm away, and picking up her jacket. "I can't stay here." She makes one sweep of the motel room and flips her laptop shut, puts it in the bag, so quickly, efficiently.

"I'm not your father, Daisy. I'm not Lincoln, either," he calls, standing and taking a step towards her, as she passes him towards the door.

"Then what?" she asks, stopping beside him, almost turning over her shoulder, but not quite meeting his eyes. "You're not Director, either, so why are you here?"

He moves closer, or perhaps she's the one who takes the steps. She never remembers moments like these right, she only knows that she's been here before.

With him.

She never did get to finish cleaning up his face. The crack in the skin of his lip, under her touch. This time, he only flinches.

There's the tender pressure of his fingers on her arm, slipping down to her elbow, and then she thinks that it's the closest that they've ever been before.

His mouth opens, and she can feel his breath against her fingertips, as his eyes flutter.

"Because, I-"

The door clicks open again, and Mack opens it, as they both separate and Coulson sighs, painfully.

Mack, to his credit, appears to be thinking about walking right back out again.

"Because we're your friends, Daisy," Coulson finishes, raising his voice to normal conversation level.

"C'mon, Tremors," Mack says, chiming in. "We all deserve a night off.""

He lifts the bag held in his hand, with the outline of food and a six pack inside.

"'Sides, I'm tired of chasing you."

She gives him a small smile, and then turns back around, and slips the backpack down off of her arms.

"It doesn't mean I'm coming back to SHIELD," she warns them, then catches Coulson's gaze out of the corner of her eye.

He sits down in the chair, behind the small table in the corner and watches her, while he helps Mack sort out the contents.

"You're not even going to let us give you our speech on the all new SHIELD?" Mack chuckles, setting the bag down and starting to pull out a beer.

"I'm sure it's fine," she answers, sitting on the edge of the bed closest to the table, but not quite.

"Here," Coulson says, standing up, and moving around the table, then pulling it closer to the bed so they all have a place to sit. "You can have my chair."

She's staring up at him standing there beside her, holding out his hand to help her up.

"Beer?" Mack asks, cracking off the top, and handing one out to see who takes it first.

"Sure," Daisy says, wrapping her hand around the neck as she stands, and then pushes past Coulson to get around the table, but not so quickly.

Their bodies make contact, in passing, and he puts a hand to her back, before he sits in her previous place.

"Burgers," Mack says, setting them out. "Daisy, you said you didn't like mushrooms, right?"

"Right," she smiles, pulling her knee up to her chest, and taking a sip of the beer. "Thank you. How is Elena?"

He finally sits down in the chair, and relaxes, lets Coulson open a beer for him, as he puts his hand under his chin to look at her.

"Good," he says with a nonchalant shrug, and takes the beer.

"That's all," Daisy says with a raise of her chin. "Good?"

"We're good," he adds, and draws little circles against the table with his fingers. "Except, you know, she always talks about suing SHIELD."

Daisy laughs, and then covers her mouth, her eyes darting to Coulson smiling at her with his split lip.

"Good for her," Daisy says, grabbing a napkin, and dampening it with some beer, before leaning forward across the table.

She feels their knees touch underneath it, and she lifts his chin with her other hand, carefully, and then touches the napkin to the split in his lip.

"Hold still," she orders, despite his enigmatic gaze.

And he does.


End file.
